Rationale

Movies are usually entertaining, can sometimes be uplifting, and are often a child’s introduction to history, novels, and biography. Hollywood lets us choose between the swash-buckling swordsmanship of Errol Flynn or Antonio Banderas, the D-day heroism of John Wayne or Tom Hanks, and Ingrid Bergman’s and Milla Jovavich’s widely different interpretations of Joan of Arc.

The success of films like Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, and Pearl Harbor, along with the digital technology that made them possible, has breathed new life into the historical epic. Because people like movies about the past, Hollywood likes to make them. Add to this the almost universal accessibility of the VCR and the video rental store, and an important truth emerges: movies and television are the only contact many people have with history outside of a classroom.

Movies and TV movies continually teach viewers history according to Hollywood. For students and teachers, the Hollywood version of history can be useful, especially if it is analyzed as one would a document. As with print, in film there is no such thing as a completely objective and unbiased historical account. This is especially true where facts serve only as inspiration, characters are composites, time is compressed, and the complex is simplified, all in glorious Technicolor - or black and white if the director really wants to emphasize historical honesty.